Tsarnaev Indicted

(CN) – A federal grand jury returned a 30-count indictment Thursday against the suspected Boston Marathon bomber, 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. The indictment comes over two months after a weeklong manhunt ended in Dzhokhar’s arrest and the death of his 26-year-old brother, suspected accomplice Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Federal prosecutors describe Dzhokhar as a naturalized U.S. citizen and say his brother Tamerlan was a Russian citizen. There is no mention otherwise about their reported background as ethnic Chechens who arrived in the United States over a decade ago as refugees from Kyrgyzstan. Evidence of Dzhokhar’s adherence to radical Islam is ubiquitous in the indictment, which also names the defendant as Jahar Tsarni. Dzhokhar used the Tsarni name to open a prepaid cellphone account on April 14, 2013 – one day before he and his brother set off twin explosions at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, according to the indictment. The brothers allegedly build the improvised explosive devices from a set of instructions they found in the summer 2010 volume of Inspire magazine. Inspire is allegedly an English-language online publication of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. The instructions called for pressure cookers, explosive powder from fireworks, shrapnel, adhesive and other materials – “designed to shred flesh, shatter bone, and cause extreme pain and suffering, as well as death,” according to the indictment. Krystle Marie Campbell, Lingzi Lu and Martin Richard died during the marathon attacks, and amputations were numerous among the more than 170 injured. Prosecutors said Dzhokhar’s computer had various books written by al-Qaida propagandists and “the Father of Global Jihad.” He and his brother allegedly went to a New Hampshire firing range for target practice in the weeks before the Boston Marathon. Tamerlan allegedly bought the fireworks to make the bombs and detonated them after Dzhokhar placed them on Boylston Street. Dzhokhar then put a bag with fireworks emptied of their explosive powder in his dorm room at the University of Massachusetts – Dartmouth, according to the indictment. When the FBI disseminated photos of the Tsarnaevs as suspects in the bombing on April 18, Dzhokhar allegedly texted a friend to enter his room and “that what you want,” Armed with IEDs, a handgun, a machete and a hunting knife, the Tsarnaevs then got in their Honda Civic and drove to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus in Cambridge, according to the indictment. That night, the Tsarnaevs “murdered Sean Collier, an MIT police officer, by shooting him in the head at close range … and attempted to steal his service weapon,” prosecutors said. Half an hour later, they carjacked a Mercedes and took the driver hostage, according to the indictment. They allegedly told the vehicle’s owner that they planned to go to Manhattan, but they first needed the GPS from their Honda, as well as gas and money. The owner of the Mercedes was forced to withdraw $800 from an ATM for the Tsarnaevs before he escaped and called 911, according to the indictment. At around 12:43 a.m., Watertown police located the bothers and allegedly attempted to apprehend them. The brothers threw IED at the officers and fired shots at them, according to the indictment. As three officers tackled Tamerlan and tried to handcuff him, Dzhokhar allegedly got back in the Mercedes and drove at them. Prosecutors say he ultimately ran over his brother, “seriously injuring him and contributing to his death.” During his escape attempt, Dzhokhar seriously injured Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority officer Richard Donohoe, according to the indictment. Dzhokhar then allegedly abandoned the car in Watertown, smashed his two cellphones and hid in a boat that was drydocked in a Watertown backyard. While hiding, Dzhokhar wrote messages on the boat’s inside wall and beams, according to the indictment. Those messages said: “The U.S. Government is killing our innocent civilians;” “I can’t stand to see such evil go unpunished;” “We Muslims are one body, you hurt one you hurt us all;” “Now I don’t like killing innocent people it is forbidden in Islam but due to said [unintelligible] it is allowed;” and “Stop killing our innocent people and we will stop.” Police captured Dzhokhar from the boat later that evening.